Lockups when playing speech wav files

Hello, good people. I'm trying to get I-war 2 to run properly, and I came upon this forum. While it doesn't seem very active, I'm hoping someone can help me.

The problem:

After installing the game and the recentmost patch, everything was fine until the point when I got my first two turret fighters. Since then, the game frequently locks up, always when it tries to load a speech .wav file. It usually happens the first time a neutral transport warns me to stop shooting at it, but sometimes it happens sooner, when the t-fighters try to confirm some order; at yet other times, on other occasions.

What I've done so far:

Reading through these forums, I've seen similar complaints, with advice suggesting that it's a codec problem that occurs when the program tries to play these files. I have confirmed this by renaming the streams/audio/speech folder which stores these wavs, and then the game ran fine (only without speech, obviously).

One thread mentioned that the game needs to codecs to run properly, Microsoft ADPCM for speech and Fraunhoffer for music.

Now, figuring that maybe my ADPCM codec is corrupted, I installed it again from the Win98SE install disk. If I go to Control Panel -> Multimedia and list the active audio codecs, it shows up there, it's not turned off, and it has a priority of 1. At the same time, however, if I start Gspot and have it analyze one of the wav files in the speecj directory, then I get different, contradictory information:

As soon as I load the file, it says "Codec NOT installed" in the Stat line of the Audio window. If I click on the Aud 1 button in the bototm left corner, it says "Unable to render Audio". However, if I click on the 1 and 2 buttons under MS A/V, then the wav file is played properly.


And, well, I'm stuck here. It seems to me the problem is with the ADPCM codec, and Gspot confirms this. However, this is right after I've reinstalled the codec, and the operating system itself reports it as functional! Please tell me, what should I do?

System specs:
Windows 98SE
Intel 82801DB(M) ICH4(-M) - AC'97 Audio Controller [A-1]

Other, probably irrelevant:
Intel Celeron 4 CPU
Abit BD7II(-RAID) motherboard
256 Mb RAM
GeForce4 MX videocard.

Hi Premier. Have you tried some of the options here?: www.i-war2.com/faqs_4.htm

Hi SoupDragon,

I tried the ones that seem to apply, but to no effect so far. To wit:

- "Fix for speech problems under WinXP/2000":
I don't have XP or 2000, I have 98SE. Still, I've tried the equivalent process before posting here (and as described above), uninstalling then reinstalling the Microsoft ADPCM codec. As described, Windows reports the codec as working, but the game still locks up and Gspot has a self-contradictory error report on it.

- "Stuttering video, copy Movies directory to HD":
Well, I've tried that, but didn't change the situation.


Having said that, these recommendations do mention installing DirectX8. Now the thing is, I have installed DirectX9 on my computer a while ago. I would try uninstalling it and putting v8 on instead, but I don't know how to: I've read that DirectX9, once installed, cannot be removed or replaced with an older version (save for reformatting the hard drive).

- "Lockups in patched game, remove planet-related graphics files":
Didn't seem very relevant, but I tried it anyway. Didn't help.


Also,, for what it's worth, there seems to be a pattern to which radio message cause a lockup. They always seem to be:
- Transport or util messaging me after I attack it (I presume either a warning to stop shooting or a surrender and cargo release message, but of course I can't hear which).
- Turret fighter confirming a detach order.
- Clay informing me that he has finished restocking the practice minefield.
- So far, there was one single lockup instance other than these, happening immediately after leaving the base (but this might have been just an unrelated glitch).

Of course, I never really get to hear many other messages before the lockup, so I can't say for sure if other wav files are unaffected. (Other than Clay's turret fighter tutorial, which never seems to cause a lockup.)

I don't think it's a DirectX issue. Plenty of people are running on XP with the higher DX versions.

My gut feeling is a CODEC one. I seem to remember a long way back about giving the Fraunhofer codec priority in the codecs list. Something to try anyway.

Alternatively:

Try these people: www.ataricommunity.com/forums/fo ... .php?f=137

It's an I-War forum that's a lot busier than here. And more likely to come up with something.

Intrigued that you still have 98SE

I agree it's most likely a codec problem. I haven't been really working the Fraunhoffer angle so far, because it was my understanding that it's only used for music, while the speech files are all governed by ADPCM (which, as described above, seems to have some weird problem). But I guess I'll just have to see if I can solve the problem via Fraunhoffer.
Also, thanks for the tip about the other forum, if I can't make it work, I'll post there as well.

SoupDragon, Premier,

I am going to try these things over the next week or two as I want this game to work and I will report back (LOL Like a good fighter pilot should)

Thanks much